Royal Matchmaker

Whenever I see the words "royal" or "prince" or anything related in the title of a Hallmark movie, I get a twinge of something, not quite disgust, but definitely negative. So I came into this expecting another cliché "royal" romance movie. Certainly if you go into this kind of movie expecting tripe, you are far more likely to find that. If that's the case, maybe you should watch something else. And yet somehow, it was fortunate that I didn't skip this one because I enjoyed this movie. Yes, I enjoyed it, but no, it won't rank in my top ten, or twenty, or ...

In this kind of movie, the thing I look for more than anything else is chemistry between the leads. And do they get enough screen time together to enjoy the chemistry. This movie was predictable, although there were some little things that were a bit out of the usual. It was smaltzy. It had a ton of clichés. But there was undeniable chemistry. It was subtle, but it was deep. There were also a couple of nice touches toward the end.

Bethany Joy Lenz was the right amount of optimist and insecure. Will Kemp was arrogant, but he also laughed a bit at himself, a kind of healthy contempt.

Like I said, if, going into it, you are determined that this type of movie is nothing but junk, don't watch it just to throw contempt at it. But if you do watch it, give it a chance to find something to like.